Monday, November 30, 2009

Back in 1996, Rhino Records had plans for a Cars rarities disc entitled Prototypes, which was to include their entire first album in demo form, as well as other rarities from all eras of the band. And even though Ice magazine ran a story on it and a track listing was set, the album never saw the light of day for reasons unknown. Three years later, Rhino reconsidered (helped by a fan write-in campaign), and issued a similarly assembled package, The Cars: Deluxe Edition. A two-CD set, it contains their classic 1978 self-titled debut in its entirety (an album you just can't hear enough), while the second disc presents the complete album in demo form, with an additional five early demos of previously unreleased compositions tacked on at the end. Diehard fans will have a feast with disc two, the demos for such radio standards as "My Best Friend's Girl," "Just What I Needed," "You're All I've Got Tonight," and "Bye Bye Love" capture the songs in their rawest form -- akin to what they must have sounded like back in the band's club days. Out of the five unissued songs, two are instant classics (the amiable "Wake Me Up" and the red-hot rocker "Hotel Queenie"), while "They Won't See You" proves interesting, despite an underdeveloped chorus -- which is forgivable, since these are demos, after all. [Note: since a demo version of "Good Times Roll" couldn't be found, a live take from 1978 is used on disc two.]-

Despite their watery name, the Aqua Velvets don't spend the bulk of this album riding the waves. In fact, the title and desert cover art seem to point in the opposite direction. And although they still obviously love reverb and twang, the band, led by guitarist Miles Corbin, proves it is more diverse than previous albums might indicate. Sure, there's plenty of Duane Eddy/Ventures licks, but the Aqua Velvets introduce them to a world music palette. This is surf-influenced music that transcends its previous limitations. To emphasize that, the disc kicks off with the spaghetti Western atmospherics of the title track before the group gets its collective feet wet in "Surf Nouveau"'s more straightforward, Shadows-style approach. But they really wander off the beach on the bongo-infused slow burn of "Snorkle Mask Replica," where backwards tapes provide an eerie backing for the multiple, overdubbed guitar solos. Ennio Morricone is referenced often here, especially in the dusty "Return to Paia," a high, lonesome mood piece. "In a Spanish Mood" is just that, with a vague flamenco groove that snakes through drum-less percussion with Corbin's echo-heavy solo. With one foot on an American surfboard and the other on foreign soil, the Aqua Velvets show they are ready to push the envelope of their often constricting field without abandoning it. The closing tracks tread water, swimming in calm seas, yet not really going anywhere, although the reggae rhythm of "Shrunken Head" is a calm coda. But Nomad is an eye-opening, if not quite groundbreaking album in a genre that has far too few of them.-

Some things are just meant to be. When the legendary Nikki Corvette arrived with equally revered rock critic Robert Matheu at a Gore Gore Girls show in Los Angeles, he instinctively knew that she and bandleader Amy Gore would be natural compatriots. Both women have toured the world, rejecting trends and gimmickry to play the authentic, powerful rock n’ roll they’ve made their religion. They became friends that night, not industry associates but real pals. When Corvette relocated to her native Detroit for family reasons, she and Gore began to spend time together, spending hours talking about music while hanging out by the record player. With members of each woman’s bands in different cities, they originally conceived the idea of doing a punk cover band, playing their favorite songs from bands like the Buzzcocks and the Damned. That soon changed when Nikki brought her tune “Lustfully Yours” to the table. Amy Gore, a formidable guitarist and writer, began writing songs specifically for Nikki that carry on the ‘Shangri-Las meets Ramones’ v sound she is famous for while incorporating lyrics rejecting the artificiality of current feminine ideals (“Fake It”) and making stand for the hedonistic fun of dancing, cars and staying up all night. “Rock n’ roll, above all else, should be fun,” said Gore.

The new tracks are compiled for The Lustfully Yours EP on Strange Girl Recordings, available Tuesday, January 26th on itunes USA and Internationally, Rhapsody, Napster, eMusic, IMVU, LimeWire Store, Amazon MP3 & Amazon on Demand.

After the jarring reception of 1999's Synkronized, Jamiroquai constructed A Funk Odyssey, something more polished and slick inside the band's own brand of funky disco-rock. Jason Kay and keyboardist/songwriter Toby Smith perfected a maturation that was left keyed in Travelling Without Moving but left open-ended on Synkronized for a wide scope of musical delight. A Funk Odyssey taps into various illustrious grooves of the Latin world, classic rock, and mainstream club culture, and Jamiroquai is tight and eager to make everyone shake their groove thing in their own light. The first single, "Little L," beams with Kajagoogoo-like synths while warping into a funk-driven hue of orchestral whirlpools, but Jamiroquai allows the band's extroverted and unattached personality to shine on the worldbeat-tinged "Corner of the Earth." Kay strips aside all disco humor and grandeur for something personally inviting, something that's heartfelt too. A Funk Odyssey sparks classic enthusiasm, and it feels good. Dance music is not just a design, it's something far more tangible, and Jamiroquai surely captures a fierce desire to make it more emotional on the band's own level.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

The Coffin Daggers are a self-proclaimed surf/punk/sci-fi band from New York City. The band was formed in 1999 in New York City, in which it has grown a supportive following. The band has toured America and Europe and often performs with horror film footage as part of their act. The Coffin Daggers' energy-driven and fast-paced performances are able to satisfy the needs of even the biggest surf-a-billy junkies.

If Himig Natin is the first, then this is the second and only other official compact release of music by hard-rock powerhouse power trio (a band, not a man) from the Phillippines, who flourished in the 1970's. Totally rocked out bluesy stoner jams, with sex and party obsessed lyrics that are pure rock 'n' roll. Maskara was originally released in 1974. It's the band's second studio album, and is another outstanding collection of heavy duty rockers featuring the classic band line-up of Wally Gonzales, Mike Hanopol, and Joey "Pepe" Smith. Highlights abound: Pinoy Blues, Nadapa Sa Arina, Beep Beep, We Love You, Palengke, and Pagod Sa Pahinga, quite a few of which were featured on the unofficial Shake Your Brains disc from a few years ago.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Before Edgar Winter had his massive commercial success that began with the instrumental “Frankenstein”, he put together an amazing array of musical talent called White Trash. Blending gospel, soul, blues, funk, r&b and rock and roll, Winter’s hard-charging combo offered blazing guitar (Rick Derringer and the amazing but little-known Floyd Radford), a killer horn section and a majestic in-your-face sound that could raise the dead.

The first studio album was a classic and the reunion record enjoyable, but the live album Roadwork is one of the best concert discs ever made. Jerry LaCroix and Edgar Winter handle most of the vocals, and you’re unlikely to find two better throaty shouters . The song selection includes classic like “Tobacco Road” and “I Can’t Turn You Loose” in addition to material from Rick Derringer and the Winter brothers.

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Review by Michael B. Smith

The live follow-up to 1971's Edgar Winter's White Trash finds the group running through a handful of the tunes from their debut album, as well as rocking things up a bit with "Still Alive and Well" (a track later recorded by Edgar's brother Johnny) and "Back in the U.S.A." One of the most immortal lines for any live rock album has to be "People keep askin' me -- where's your brother?" The introduction of guest artist Johnny Winter by his brother Edgar sets the stage for a rousing rendition of Rick Derringer's "Rock & Roll, Hoochie Koo." The extended version of blues classic "Tobacco Road" is one of the finest moments on this album, which is itself a classic.- Tracklist:

Sunday, November 22, 2009

-I was on a job with several Phillipino co-workers. We happened to begin talking about music (duh!) and I asked them if they had ever heard of Juan De La Cruz. They both looked at each other and began laughing. They said "of course we know about Juan De La Cruz!" As they did not seem the type who liked heavy rock I asked them how they knew about them. I was then informed that Juan De La Cruz is the name of the national icon of the Phillipines, the same as Uncle Sam in the U.S.. Now didn't I feel stupid and enlightened at the same time. Every time I hear this album I start laughing again. Hope you enjoy it. (I have several more if the response is there).-

-Juan De La Cruz (a band, not a man, so it's filed under "J") was a hard-rock powerhouse powertrio from the Phillippines who flourished in the nineteen seventies. If you're hip to other obscurites from the era, imagine a cross between Buffalo and Los Dug Dug's! This bootleg-looking disc reissues one of their earliest albums (no date given, sorry, but we'd guess '71 or so), and it's a killer. Totally rocked out bluesy stoner jams, with brilliantly fucked sex and party obsessed lyrics ("get drunk all day, get down all night", "I'll just wait for you down in the alley / and I'll show you how it can be"). And guitarist Wally Gonzales has got his acid-psych leads down, man! It's not clear who's singing (it might be the drummer, an American who previously played in the equally primal Japanese psychrock band Speed, Glue, & Shinki) but whoever it is, he's got the perfect delivery for this stuff, which includes one of our all-time favorite garage-psych songs, "I Wanna Say Yeah" -- perhaps the ultimate rock n' roll song title/lyric *EVER*. I mean, yeah! None of today's punks, stoners, or garage revivalists can touch that. text from Aquarius records SF.-The Smith-penned 'Shake Your Brain' is another gem that deserves 'classic' recognition. The spotlight though, is on the title song. A song about how important music is to the Filipino and should be one of the top 5 best Filipino songs ever written. All the planets were definitely aligned when JDLC recorded this masterpiece. From the opening acoustic guitar riff and piano accompaniment to it's beautiful lyrics and Wally Gonzales' awe-inspiring guitar solo, it is the perfect song that touches the very core of being Filipino. The impact that this song and album made on Pinoy Rock was never imitated and can never be duplicated.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Japanese cult favorite sludge/doom rock trio Boris takes their name from a song on grunge godfathers the Melvins' Bullhead album. They also have a lot in common with the Melvins musically, including a fondness for heavily down-tuned guitar/bass tones and exceedingly slow tempos. But they also incorporate elements variously drawn from other sources, including psychedelic rock, punk, noise, minimalism, pure sludge-drone music à la Earth, and more. Also, despite the unpretentious psychedelic/stoner rock imagery that accompanies much of their work, there is an ambitiously experimental aspect to much of it. Their albums, for example, have tended to be massive conceptual projects: Absolutego, in its original form, was a feedback-heavy drone exploration consisting of a single 65-minute track; Flood consists of another extremely long track, 70-plus minutes in length, exploring the band's quieter sides with a minimalist/phase music slant. Also on the more experimental end of their discography are collaborations with Japanese avant-garde enigma Keiji Haino and power electronics/noise legend Merzbow.

Boris formed during the early '90s and consists of guitarist Wata, bassist Takeshi, and drummer/vocalist Atsuo. They made their first recorded appearance on an obscure 1994 compilation entitled Take Care of Scabbard Fish, released only in Japan and now out of print. Absolutego, their full-length debut, came out in 1996 on the band's own Fangs Anal Satan imprint but was unavailable in the U.S. for years, a situation that was remedied when the Los Angeles-based Southern Lord label reissued the album in early 2001 along with a bonus track and new packaging. Their next album, Amplifier Worship, came out on the Mangrove label in 1998 and was also unavailable in the U.S. for several years; San Francisco's Man's Ruin had planned to reissue it in the fall of 2001, but the label folded before that could happen. 1998 also saw the release of the Boris/Keiji Haino collaboration, a live disc entitled Black: Implication Flooding, which came out on Japan's Inoxia Records. In 1999, Boris issued a split CD with fellow Japanese band Choukoko No Niwa, More Echoes, Touching Air Landscape, which also came out on Inoxia and featured Boris weighing in with a brief (for them) 28-minute contribution. Their third full-length album, Flood, was released two years later on the MIDI Creative label. Their 2006 album Pink put them back on Southern Lord and featured some shoegaze-influenced sounds. A year later Rainbow appeared with Michio Kurihara from the Japanese band Ghost contributing to the soundscapes. Also in 2007, they released a limited-edition recording of a live performance with Japanese noise master Merzbow in Tokyo titled Rock Dream.Smile, the group's fourteenth album was released in spring, 2008.-

Review

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It's great to finally see some of this classic Boris material finally surface from its Japanese home, and Flood is one of the undiscovered gems of the early catalog. Comprised of four 'movements' (don't worry they're all around fifteen-twenty minutes in length) this shows Boris at their most sedate, moving between simple picked guitar compositions, lengthy psychedelic freak-outs and deep, haunting and somewhat spiritual drone compositions that wouldn't sound out of place on a Mirror album. Opening with a hypnotic guitar riff which tumbles around itself in an almost Reich-like manner we are gradually introduced to some simply startling, cavernous percussion before being coaxed into the utter beauty of the album's second piece. This is Boris at their friendliest with a slice of ebow-heavy instrumental guitar music maybe closer to Mogwai's quieter moments than the metal-flecked and Melvins-worshipping Boris we all know so well. Don't worry though, the distortion pedals are back for the third part as the band push their amps to eleven for the album's heaviest and most psychedelic moment, before bowing out on an extended and almost melancholic drone workout. A rich and varied body of work which indicates well how the band were to progress in the future recordings, this is an essential part of any self respecting Boris fan's collection.-

While little known and relatively unheralded during its brief existence, the Krautrock duo Neu! cast a large shadow over later generations of musicians and served as a major influence on artists as diverse as David Bowie, Sonic Youth, Pere Ubu, Julian Cope, and Stereolab. Neu! formed in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1971 after multi-instrumentalists Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger both split from Kraftwerk. Recorded in the space of four days with Can producer Conrad Plank, the duo's self-titled debut appeared early in 1972 and quickly established their affection for minimalist melodies and lock-groove rhythms. While virtually ignored throughout the rest of the world, the album sold extremely well in West Germany, resulting in a tour with support from Guru Guru's Uli Trepte and Eberhard Krahnemann.

Rother and Dinger returned to the studio in 1973 for Neu! 2, but a shortfall of cash allowed the duo to complete only two songs, "Super" and "Neuschnee," which they subsequently remixed at varying and disorienting speeds in order to flesh out a full-length album. After the record's release, Rother joined Dieter Moebius and Joachim Roedelius of Cluster to form Harmonia, but Neu! officially reunited in 1975 to record Neu! 75. After its release, they again disbanded; Rother continued on as a solo performer, while Dinger and drummer Hans Lampe formed La Dusseldorf. In the mid-'80s, Rother and Dinger re-formed yet again, although the recording sessions, titled Neu! 4, did not officially surface until 1996.

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Review by Thom Jurek

Fresh after leaving Kraftwerk in the fall of 1971 for what they perceived to be a lack of vision, guitarist Michael Rother and drummer Klaus Dinger formed their own unit and changed the face of German rock forever -- eventually influencing their former employer, Florian Schneider of Kraftwerk. The 1974 album Autobahn was a genteel reconsideration of the music played here. Neu! created a sound that was literally made for cruising in an automobile. While here in the States people were flipping out over "Radar Love" by Golden Earring, if they'd known about this first Neu! disc, they would never have bothered. Dinger's mechanical, cut time drumming and Rother's two-note bass runs adorned with cleverly manipulated and dreamy guitar riffs and fills were the hallmarks of the "motorik" sound that would become the band's trademark. On "Hallogallo", which opens the disc, the listener encounters a timeless rock & roll sound world. The driving guitar playing one chord in different cadences and rhythmic patters, the four-snare to the floor pulse with a high hat and bass drum for ballast, and a bassline that is used more for keeping the drummer on time than as a rhythm instrument in its own right. These are draped in Rother's liquidy, cascading single note drones and runs, so even as the tune's momentum propels the listener into a movement oriented robotic dance, the guitar's lyrical economy brings an aesthetic beauty into the mix that opens the space up from inside. The tense ambient soundscape of "Sonderangebot" balances things a bit before the slower-than-Neil Young "Weissensee" opens with a subtle industrial clamor and opens up into a lyrical exploration of distorted slide guitar aesthetics with an uncharacteristic drum elegance that keeps the guitar in check. "Im Glück" tracks a restrained, droning path through the textural palette of the guitar, treated with whispering distortion and echo. All hell breaks loose again on Dinger's "Negativland" as an industrial soundscape eventually gives way to a bass and guitar squall as darkly enticing as anything on Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures. It's really obvious now how the JD's sound was influenced by this simply and darkly delicious brew of noise, bass throb, percussive hypnosis, and an oddly placed, strangely under-mixed, guitar. Rother's style had as much to do with not playing as it did with virtuosity, and his fills of open chords, stuttered cadences, and broken syntax provided a much needed diversion for the metronymic regularity of the rhythm section. Rother didn't riff; he painted a mix with whatever was necessary to get the point across. His mannerisms here are not to draw attention to himself, but rather to that numbing, incessant rhythm provided wondrously by Dinger. Neu!'s debut album was driving music for the apocalypse in 1971. These official CD reissues, remastered by Neu! with Herbert Gronmeyer, are the first official ones. Their sound is phenomenal and the strange dropouts and fades are intentional. They are worthy packages. Oddly enough, after a millennial change and a constant stream of samples being taken from it, and its influence saturating both the rock and electronica scenes, it still sounds ahead of its time.

This Tyler, TX, group from the mid-'60s is most known for their uncanny imitation of Highway 61-era Dylan, "A Public Execution." Featured on the Nuggets compilation, it is to Dylan what the Knickerbockers' "Lies" is to the Beatles: one of the few rip-offs so utterly accurate that it could easily fool listeners into mistaking it for the original article. Spearheaded by singer/songwriter Ronnie Weiss, the group actually recorded quite a few decent singles between 1965 and 1969 without approaching any sort of national recognition. "Mouse" never got as explicitly Dylanesque again, but there's no doubt that Weiss often recalled a non-atonal Dylan with his nasal delivery, and several of their singles were a much more melodic, pop-oriented extension of Dylan's mid-'60s sound. Recording almost exclusively original material, they were one of the better regional groups of the time, and also waxed some capable Texas punk-psychedelia and good-time pop/rockers.

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Review by Richie Unterberger

Fraternity Years is the first Mouse & the Traps compilation of a truly official nature, taken right from the master tapes. The 25 tracks do miss a few of their least essential cuts, like the awful country novelty "Would You Believe," their mediocre final single for Bell, and the "Psychotic Reaction" single they recorded under the pseudonym of Positively 13 O'Clock. But everything else is here, with the neat bonuses of a 1967 single credited to another pseudonym (Chris St. John) and seven interesting, previously unreleased sides, including the moving folk-rock-protest number "Nobody Cares" and a you-gotta-hear-it-to-believe-it cover of "You Are My Sunshine" (set to the arrangement of James Brown's "I Got You"!). The lengthy liner notes present the best history of the group ever written, capping an excellent reissue of a fine band who were probably too chameleon-like to find their niche in the national market.-

Tracklist:

1 A Public Execution 2 Maid of Sugar, Maid of Spice 3 Nobody Cares 4 Cryin' Inside 5 I'm a Man 6 Lie, Beg, Borrow and Steal 7 I've Got Her Love 8 I Am the One 9 Like I Know You Do 10 Sometimes You Just Can't Win 11 All for You 12 Do the Best You Can 13 Look at the Sun 14 You Don't Love Me (You Don't Care) 15 Promises, Promises 16 I Satisfy 17 Requiem for Sarah 18 L.O.V.E. Love 19 Ya Ya 20 Good Times 21 Hand in Hand 22 You Are My Sunshine 23 I Wonder Where the Birds Fly 24 Mohair Sam 25 As Far as the Sea

Capitol's The Complete Birth of the Cool is a double-disc set that's separated into two halves. The first contains all 12 tracks Davis cut in the studio in January 1949 with Gil Evans. The second contains three radio broadcasts that the Birth of the Cool nonet performed in September 1948 at the Royal Roost in New York City. All the recordings have been completely remastered, resulting in the best ever sound for these recordings. The set also features brand new liner notes from Phil Schapp, plus the original liners. All the added features help make The Complete Birth of the Cool the definitive chronicle of one of the most important eras in jazz history.-

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

For the past three years, Tommy T (Thomas T Gobena) has been the bass player for gypsy punk powerhouse Gogol Bordello. Tommy was born and raised in Addis Abada (Ethiopia's capital city) and the knowledge of global rhythms he brings to Gogol's sound has become part of their unclassifiable approach to music making. "The Prester John Sessions" is an aural travelogue that ranges freely through the music and culture of Ethiopia, the album is a collection of 11 songs including a remix of the track "Oromo Dub (Cushitic Dub)," featuring fellow Gogol Bordello band mates Eugene Hutz and Pedro Erazo and mixed by Michael Goldwasser of the Easy Star All-Stars.

In the 70s, funk, wah-wah pedals, and jazz had a huge impact on Ethiopian music," Tommy explains. "The Prester John Sessions will give people an idea about the musical diversity of Ethiopia, which includes influences and ideas borrowed from the sounds of the 70's with the added bonus of up-to-date production values."

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Sampler Tracks:

I picked out these four tracks to give you all a taste of the different grooves Tommy has put together. Fine stuff. I'm sure you'll enjoy them. Available on iTunes.

Wasting no time from the breakup of the Mad Violets in late 1984, guitarist and now vocalist Dino Sorbello grabbed Andrea Mathews on drums from the recently broken up Outta Place, and added Noreen Lewis on bass and located Bill Ebauer for keyboards in a Village Voice ad. After a quick gig or two at the Dive they set about recording their first self-titled Ep (released on Voxx Records March 1985) which continues to sell to this very day. An article in Vanity Fair magazine in June 1985 about the big 60s style resurgence featured a two-page color photo by Mary Ellen Mark, and some copy about the band, so instead of a kit, the band showed the mag around town to score some prestigious gigs.

By1986 the group had new drummers, bassists, and finally decided to add a lead singer,former Ford model Sharon Middendorf. They were featured in a High Times cover story about the "Minds Eye" shows happening at the old Tramps Club (where Joey Ramone, after seeing them, is quoted as as saying:" I was transported..."). Spring of 1987 saw the release of 'Inner Mission' (USA : NBC Records, Europe : Semaphore Records). Two tours each to Florida and California, a fair amount of US airplay on college stations, and quite a lot of airplay in Europe, especially Greece(!?) let a lot of folks hear their brand of psychedelically inflected 60s pop originals. A few months after playing the Mind Circus event at Temple Universty in Philadelphia during spring 1988 the group was disbanded by Dino after certain members failed to commit for the next tour.

Now you can hear all the previous vinyl-only releases along with a couple of previously unreleased studio and live rehearsal cuts combined on a brand new CD release from Tripwave! Records entitled 'A Field Guide To Blacklight Chameleons' (TWR 002).-

- Sounds like: Masked in black jackets and silver crosses, Thes Siniestros puts on stage with his combo amphetamine influences of Rhythm & Blues, Rockabilly, garage and surf music. Their language is a mixture of several cultures, and their songs tell stories that do not cease to be strong in our own time. Murderers, romantic cowboys, gauchos marijuana, drug traffickers or the saints who are devout, appear frequently and are exposed to an audience that moves his feet from the first chords. On February 29 of 2008, a leap-day, Thes Siniestros released his first LP, under the name "Rhythm Vertigo," a manifesto for rhythm and sound hallucination. It is sixteen sonatas cathartic coming in the form of conceptual narrative, resulting in the audience after ingesting a drug-hallucinatory journey toward land sinister.

Box of Frogs was a band formed in 1983 by former members of The Yardbirds, who released their first album in 1984. The core group comprised Chris Dreja, Paul Samwell-Smith, and Jim McCarty. Vocals on their eponymous album were done by John Fiddler, formerly of Medicine Head and British Lions (who were essentially Mott the Hoople without Ian Hunter); on the second album Fiddler sang on five tracks with guests including Graham Parker, Ian Dury and Roger Chapman singing lead on the others. Many musicians guested on their albums (including Rory Gallagher and Mark Feltham), with several tracks featuring Steve Hackett. Former Yardbirds guitarists Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page guested on their first and second albums respectively.

The group showed promise on the first album of rock radio friendly tunes, featuring Jeff Beck. "Back Where I Started" was in the top ten in the U.S. and the album was a featured number one on college campusese. Plans were made for a U.S. tour, but it is alleged that Samwell-Smith, Dreja, and McCarty nixed the idea of the tour, much to John Fiddler's dismay. Jeff Beck, who along with Dzal Martin was considered as the lead guitarist for such a tour, was reportedly disgusted at his ex-bandmates' refusal to tour America. He took no part on the second album, and Fiddler barely chose to do so before walking out. "Asylum" is one of the few songs Fiddler sang on, and was the only one featuring Page.

The track Back Where I Started is regularly included in the set-list of the revived Yardbirds.

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Tracklist:

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1 Back Where I Started 2 Harder 3 Another Wasted Day 4 Love Inside You 5 The Edge 6 Two Steps Ahead 7 Into the Dark 8 Just a Boy Again 9 Poor Boy

Monday, November 09, 2009

-Yūzō Kayama (加山 雄三 Kayama Yūzō?) is a Japanese popular musician and film star, born on April 11, 1937. His father, Ken Uehara, was one of the most popular film stars in Japan during the 1930s. Yuzo Kayama became one of Japan's biggest stars of the 1960s in the "Wakadaishô" or "Young Guy" film series.

He showed his ability for drama when Akira Kurosawa cast him for his 1965 film, Red Beard (赤ひげ Akahige?), starring Toshiro Mifune. Kayama reported that he found the two years spent making this film the most difficult, but proudest work of his life.

As a guitarist, he took inspiration from the American surf group The Ventures, and performed a distinctly Japanese form of psychedelic surf music in the 1960s with his Mosrite guitar. This triggered a big fashion statement in Japan, mainly in Osaka where younger men would walk around with surfboards, despite the lack of any nearby beaches. One of Kayama's best-known instrumentals is "Black Sand Beach". As a singer, he is best known for the Japanese ballad, "Kimi To Itsumademo". Several renditions of this song, as covered by various artists over more than 40 years since the release of the original, can be found on the internet.

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Yuzo Kayama first came to fame in 1961 as the dashingly handsome young star of the "Wakadaisho" ("Young General") series of teen films. Heavily influenced by the Ventures he formed a backing group, the Launchers and started recording for Toshiba Records.

In Yuzo Kayama's second "Wakadaisho" film, the 1965 feature, "Eleki No Wakadaisho" ("The Young General's Electric Guitar"), Kayama and Takeshi Terauchi perform together backed by the Launchers and they really blast the place to pieces!

Two of Yuzo Kayama's best known instrumentals, "Black Sand Beach" and "Yozora No Hoshi," were even covered by the Ventures, who were so impressed with Kayama and the Launchers that they presented him with one of their own signature-model Mosrite guitars!

Saturday, November 07, 2009

A Union soldier who lay dying on the battlefield calls out to his lover, a young Miss Clara Barton - pioneer, nurse, and founder of The American Red Cross. A fireman paints a vivid impression of The Great Boston Fire of 1872, before it "swallowed him whole." Glowing four-part harmonies

and an enchanting melody escort Mary Dyer to the gallows in 1660, retelling her tragic tale and saluting her courage and martyrdom. A brave abolitionist battles slavery with words, ink, and his printing press - taking shape as a radical newspaper known as “The Liberator.”

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Playfully titled, "The King Can Drink the Harbour Dry," it's no exaggeration to say The Dimes' new record is a musical Cliffs Notes for an early American History class. A sonic adventure with influences ranging from Simon and Garfunkel to The Beatles' White Album, it's the distinct lyrical

musings that set it apart from other folk-pop albums this year. Singer-songwriter Johnny Clay delivers a dramatic history lesson with a baroque assortment of instruments, sixties pop harmonies, and delightfully simple arrangements as though he’s channeling the spirits of people, places and events from early day Boston, Massachusetts.

Amidst all of the storytelling and folky, avant-garde arrangements, at its core the record maintains a pastoral, old-country meets sixties pop goodness that cannot be denied. The King Can Drink the Harbour Dry is the Portland, Oregon-based band's second full-length release. Originally afour-piece, The Dimes have recently evolved to a seven-piece, adding a cello, pedal steel, and a revolving cast of artists and instruments, representing all the layers, pastoral elements, and lush harmonies found on the record. Early comparisons of The King Can Drink The Harbour Dry have groupd it with the likes of Andrew Bird, Great Lake Swimmers, Destroyer, Bowerbirds and even Iron and Wine. The band's debut release, The Silent Generation, garnered national attention from SPIN, Magnet,Under the Radar, NPR, USA Today, and a long list of music blogs. SPIN described it as a "...sparkling pop gem...with its cascading guitars, sweet harmony vocals and Big Country-esque

proportions." The Dimes also released a couple of singles and a four-song EP (New England) in early 2009 as a precursor to the new record.

Friday, November 06, 2009

Six-String Samurai is a 1998 post-apocalyptic action/comedy film directed by Lance Mungia. Brian Tyler composed the score for this film along with the Red Elvises, the latter providing the majority of the soundtrack.

Six-String Samurai was greeted with a great deal of excitement when shown at Slamdance in 1998, winning the Slamdance awards for best editing and cinematography, and gathering extremely favorable reviews from influential alternative, cult and indie film publications such as Fangoria, Film Threat[1] and Ain't It Cool News.

In a limited theatrical release the film ran for several months in a few theaters, gaining a reputation as a minor cult film; having a budget of $2,000,000, it only made a mere $124,494 at the box offices. An intended trilogy has been discussed but not yet realized, just like the predicted launching of the career of the film's star, Jeffrey Falcon, a martial artist who had appeared in several Hong Kong action movies in the 80s and early 90s. While Mungia made several music videos, he did not direct another feature until the 2005 film, The Crow: Wicked Prayer.

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Plot-Six-String Samurai is set in an alternate history America, in which Russia launched several nuclear warheads at the U.S. in 1957, reducing most of the United States to an inhospitable desert. The government has entirely collapsed save for the Kingdom of Elvis, who rules from "Lost Vegas" to California. The Red Army is besieging Vegas, but the lack of supplies and equipment ("We haven't had bullets since 1957," comments a Russian general in the movie) from the Soviet Union has caused them to degenerate into just another gang squabbling for territory. As the movie begins, Elvis has died and a radio disc jockey (voiced by Keith Mortimer and sounding suspiciously like Wolfman Jack) announces a call for all musical virtuosos to come to Lost Vegas to try to become the new King of Rock'n'Roll.

Buddy (Jeffrey Falcon), a Buddy Holly look-alike with a katana taped to the back of his guitar, is one of the musicians converging on Lost Vegas on the death of The King. Early in his travels, he finds himself obliged to take care of a kid, simply called "Kid" (Justin McGuire). While Buddy resents having to look after the Kid, the Kid turns out to prove his worth in a few key situations.

Buddy comes across many people in his travels, ranging from a zombie-like, cannibal suburban family to the 'windmill people' who are dressed like astronauts, to the filthy tribals that make up most of the civilian population. He also combats many foes, including a samurai, a bowling team of bounty-hunters, a Russian surf band (played by the Red Elvises), and the Russian army laying siege to Lost Vegas. Throughout his journey, Buddy is stalked by his greatest foe: a sinister Slash look-alike who might be the personified Grim Reaper, and his grungy group of guitarists/archers; the goal of "Death" is the elimination of all King-wannabe rivals and the conquest of Vegas (this being allegorical to the actual motive, that of removing rock'n'roll music from society and replacing it with the sound of heavy metal)

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

The 4th annual 13 GUITAR RUMBLE - THE LINK WRAY TRIBUTEwill take place this Thursday evening at 9:30 at the Redwood Bar & Grill inbeautiful downtown Los Angeles. Come out and join some of L.A.'s hottest pickers in celebrating the music and life of one of rock and roll's true pioneers.

Lincoln Wray had the unique distinction of having the only instrumental tune banned from radio (Rumble!)

After everyone puts their own twist on their fave LW songs all 13 guitars will join together to play "Rumble" at one time - we might just bust the Richter scale WIDE OPEN!

In addition, Eric Moore is flying in from Cleveland to help out with hispetition to induct Link Wray into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame project. If you can't make this show please go to Eric's site and sign the petition!http://inductlinkwray.com/2009/10/25/13-guitar-rumble-november-5-2009/